ChatTJB is a chatbot where a human answers every message

In short: ChatTJB is a “chatbot” that went viral after a San Francisco billboard, but it is actually one person, Tucker Bryant, replying to messages himself.

What happened

ChatTJB is a website that looks like an AI chatbot, like ChatGPT or Claude. The twist is that no computer model is writing the replies. Its creator, 32-year-old Tucker Bryant, sits down and answers prompts one by one.

If someone asks for a picture, Bryant draws it himself. WIRED reports recent requests included a frog eating spaghetti and two black cats eating grass on a table. Bryant said the messages range from simple questions like how to fry an egg to more personal ones, like what to do instead of having a birthday party.

Bryant told WIRED he launched ChatTJB in April, but interest jumped on July 27 after he put up a $6,000 billboard in San Francisco. As of August 6, he said the site had received more than 30,000 queries, and at peak times he was getting about 5,000 prompts per hour. The site warns users that many people are writing in and replies may be slow.

Why it matters

Bryant says ChatTJB is mainly an art project and a comment on how people use AI tools. He worries about “cognitive surrender,” which means trusting an AI answer without thinking it through (like letting a calculator do your grocery budget, then never checking if the numbers make sense). ChatTJB flips the usual promise of fast, confident AI replies and replaces it with something slower and imperfect, but clearly human.

Source: Wired